Rail parking lot to get decks

By Mary Jo Hill TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Wednesday

Nov 28, 2007 at 12:19 AM

Commuters used to being squeezed out of a parking space at the busy North Leominster Commuter Rail Station should get some relief in coming years under a project to expand the lot from about 140 parking spaces to 400 spaces.

Design of the expansion project has been advertised, and money has been obtained for architectural, engineering and environmental studies and plans, said Mohammed H. Khan, administrator of the Montachusett Regional Transit Authority, which owns the lot.

Two decks will be built to make room for the additional parking spaces, he said.

Officials hope to put the project out to bid next year, after the design is completed. They anticipate a federal grant of about $5 million will be available by then, Mr. Khan said.

All potential funding sources are being explored for the expanded lot, said Sara Merriam, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, in an e-mail.

Mr. Olver secured a $250,000 fiscal 2008 earmark for the project in the Transportation Appropriations Bill, which still must pass the U.S. Senate and be signed by the president, Mrs. Merriam said.

Normally, a project of this kind takes 18 to 24 months to complete, depending on the complexity of the design, Mr. Khan said. In this case, the lot is a narrow space and there must be room for a bus to come in and out, for handicapped access and for one or two elevators, he said.

“All of these technical issues need to be resolved,” he said.

The total cost of the expansion comes to $6.5 million, with the remainder of the money coming from the state, he said.

The parking lot at 34 Nashua St. opened to fanfare in September 2004, along with a new rail station that had been relocated a short distance down the tracks to the other side of Route 13. Before the change, commuters parked in a dirt lot and walked across busy Route 13 to catch a train.

The new lot also brought a $2 per car or $35 a month charge for parking, which previously had been free.

Still — despite the new fee — cars began filling up the new lot within about a month of its opening, Mr. Khan said.

“It’s all full for the first few trains in the morning, so there is a tremendous need for expansion,” he said.

Spillover from the full lot means commuters sometimes park in a restaurant lot across the street or on residential side streets off Prospect Street, Mr. Khan said. While the restaurant has not complained, MART wants to be a good neighbor, and people living on the side streets have made it known that they are not happy about commuters’ cars parked in front of their homes, he said.

Mayor Dean J. Mazzarella said the initial parking lot was planned to handle an addition.

Officials knew that the change from the makeshift parking lot to the new facility would make a difference in attracting commuters, Mr. Mazzarella said.

“We knew right then and there that it would become an instant success,” he said.

Although the lot in Leominster is bursting at the seams, the garage at the Fitchburg Intermodal Center is only about half full right now, Mr. Khan said. That 400-space lot, which opened in June 2005, is expected to take about five years to fill, he said.

But unless they are from northern communities such as Ashby or Ashburnham, Mr. Khan said, “People don’t want to go too far away from Route 2.”

When there’s no parking at the North Leominster lot, commuters are encouraged to go to Fitchburg, but they shun that additional 20-minute trip into the downtown area and go to Shirley, Littleton or South Acton, he said.

There is tremendous demand, and someone in Littleton is even charging commuters to park on private property, Mr. Khan said.

Commuters come to the North Leominster lot from communities that include Sterling, Princeton and the Gardner area, he said.

There has been some talk about expanding the commuter rail line from Fitchburg west to the intersection of Routes 2 and 31 behind an industrial park to capture people coming from the Gardner-Athol-Orange area, he said.

“It’s an ambitious project, about $50 million or so,” Mr. Khan said.

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